Man dies, homes damaged in southern California flash floods

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoDavid Bauman | The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.)An official of Forest Home checks out flash-flood damage to the Christian camp and conference center in Forest Falls, Calif. Later on Sunday, about 500 stranded campers spent the night at a community center.

MOUNT BALDY, Calif. — More than 30 homes were damaged after flash floods struck mountainous
areas of southern California, and at least a dozen of them are so severely damaged that they are
uninhabitable, authorities said yesterday.

A flash flood ripped through the town of Mount Baldy and damaged 25 houses, rendering six
uninhabitable, Fire Chief Bill Stead said.

Stead said the most significant damage in the tiny resort town popular with skiers and hikers is
in the Goat Hill area, where a rockslide buried homes up to their roofs.

About 50 miles away near Forest Falls, at least a half-dozen homes have similar severe damage
from mud and water.

Mountain roads were reopened after mudslides on Sunday blocked them and stranded 2,500 people,
including 500 campers who spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls before departing,
San Bernardino County fire officials said.

An artery into the town of Oak Glen, where about 1,500 people were stranded, also was open
again, county fire Capt. Jeff Britton said.

Everyone in the two towns was accounted for, and no injuries were reported, officials said.

To the west, a 48-year-old man died in a car that was swept into a rain-swollen creek near Mount
Baldy. Coroner’s officials identified him as Joo Hwan Lee of El Segundo.

Residents of Mount Baldy awoke yesterday to sunshine and mud-filled streets. They swapped
stories between drying out carpets and shoveling dirt from in front of their homes.

“The stream was a raging black torrent of debris and big logs and muddy, silty water,” said
Michael Honer, who watched the flood build over an hour from a friend’s house up the road. “It was
apocalyptic. … It sounded like a cross between a railroad train and a jet engine.”

Lee’s white Toyota Prius was wedged in Bear Creek among boulders and a log. The windshield was
shattered, and the car was full of dirt.

Lee was parked in Angela Batistelli’s driveway when she returned home with groceries on Sunday.
Hikers frequently park there, and she asked the driver to move.

Rain was falling hard when she carried bags up to her house. Later, she saw the Prius down the
street; its taillights surrounded by water, and then it was gone in the roar of water filling the
canyon.

Batistelli’s car, a Toyota Echo, also was washed away. It was found sticking with its front end
buried in the silt-filled streambed. Her 250-gallon propane tank was torn from the house and
carried down the street.

Monsoonal moisture brought brief but fierce storms to mountain, desert and inland areas. In and
around Palm Springs, knee-deep water flooded streets and stranded vehicles.

The downpour dumped as much as 3 1/2 inches of rain on Forest Falls, and nearly 5 inches on
Mount Baldy, the National Weather Service said.

In the Angeles National Forest, a group of several people and a dog were airlifted to
safety.